Wijk aan Zee 2009 – players, places, dates and times

12/4/2008 – The annual Wijk aan Zee tournament takes place from January 16th to February 1st 2009. Anand, Topalov and Kramnik are missing, but Morozevich, Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Aronian and Radjabov make for a star-studded field. Groups B and C are also well equipped with interesting players, including a former world champion and the current junior world champions. Full information.

Wijk aan Zee 2009 – information and schedule

Wijk aan Zee (pronounced: wyk aahn zeh – to rhyme with "like",
not "weak") is a small town on the coast
of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk in the province of North
Holland of the Netherlands.

The prestigious yearly Corus tournament, formerly called Hoogovens, takes place
in three Grandmaster Groups. There are also a number of amateur groups taking
part at the same time. The three Grandmaster tournaments have 14 players each
and are round robins (each competitor plays against every other).

Participants of Grandmaster Group A

Title

Player

Nat.

Rating

rank

GM

Alexander Morozevich

RUS

2787

2

GM

Vassily Ivanchuk

UKR

2786

3

GM

Magnus Carlsen

NOR

2786

4

GM

Levon Aronian

ARM

2757

7

GM

Teymour Radjabov

AZE

2751

8

GM

Wang Yue

CHN

2736

11

GM

Michael Adams

ENG

2734

12

GM

Sergei Movsesian

SVK

2732

13

GM

Sergei Karjakin

UKR

2730

15

GM

Gata Kamsky

USA

2729

16

GM

Leinier Dominguez

CUB

2719

21

GM

Loek van Wely

NED

2618

GM

Daniel Stellwagen

NED

2605

GM

Jan Smeets

NED

2604

Average rating: 2720 – Category:
19

The average rating in Group A is 22 points less than in the previous year,
and the tournament has become a category 19 instead of 20. One interesting new
player is Chinese GM Wang Yue, who has not lost a single game for nine months
now and is unbeaten in 82 games (after round nine of the Chess Olympiad in Dresden
French GM Etienne Bacrot emerged from a game against Wang shaking his head:
"That guy really cannot be beaten!"). Wang, who is number 11 in the
world today, is close to breaking Vladimir Kramnik's record of 82 games in 1999
to 2000, and that of Mikhail Tal, who played 93 games without defeat in 1973/74.
The legendary 63-game unbeaten streak by José Raúl Capablanca
in the period from 1916 to 1924 pales by comparison.

Addendum: we have been informed by GM Sergey Tiviakov that from 28.10.2004
until 28.09.2005 he played 110 games (normal FIDE controls, no rapid) and
didn't lose any. "Of course, my opponents were not all very strong,"
he writes, "but they did include Ivanchuk, Aronian, Radjabov, Carlsen,
Dreev, etc. So my record can still be compared with that of Wang Yue, for
example."

Another interesting debutante is Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez, who recently won
the World Blitz
Championship in Almaty and who is fast developing into a super-star. GM
Sergei Movsesian, who won the Group B section in 2008, is also playing in the
Wijk aan Zee A Group for the first time, as are the young Dutch grandmasters
Jan Smeets and Daniel Stellwagen.

Participants of Grandmaster Group B

Title

Player

Nat.

Rating

rank

GM

Krishnan Sasikiran

IND

2694

35

GM

Zahar Efimenko

UKR

2680

41

GM

Rustam Kasimdzhanov

UZB

2672

49

GM

Alexander Motylev

RUS

2672

50

GM

Francisco Vallejo Pons

ESP

2664

55

GM

Andrei Volokitin

UKR

2659

61

GM

Nigel Short

ENG

2642

85

GM

Fabiano Caruana

ITA

2640

87

GM

David Navara

CZE

2633

99

GM

Erwin l'Ami

NED

2610

GM

Jan Werle

NED

2582

WGM

Hou Yifan

CHN

2578

GM

Henrique Mecking

BRA

2567

GM

Dimitri Reinderman

NED

2543

Average rating: 2631 – Category:
16

The average rating in Group B is 13 points higher than in the previous year,
and the tournament has advanced from a category 15 to 16. We find a former FIDE
world champions here, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, a former world championship challenger,
Nigel Short, and a former world championship candidate, Henrique Mecking. Of
particular interest are the youngsters Fabiano Caruana, 16, who last Sunday
won a strong rapid chess tournament
in Turin with an 8½/9 point score; and Chinese WGM Hou Yifan (pronounced
ho-EE fan) who will turn 15 a month after she finishes the Wijk aan Zee tournament.

Participants of Grandmaster Group C

Title

Player

Nat.

Rating

GM

Wesley So

PHI

2610

GM

David Howell

ENG

2593

GM

Abhijeet Gupta

IND

2580

GM

Tiger Hillarp Persson

SWE

2543

GM

Friso Nijboer

NED

2540

GM

Eduardo Iturrizaga

VEN

2538

IM

Manuel Leon Hoyos

MEX

2535

GM

Oleg Romanishin

UKR

2532

GM

Frank Holzke

GER

2524

FM

Anish Giri

RUS

2466

WGM

Dronavalli Harika

IND

2462

IM

Roeland Pruijssers

NED

2458

IM

Manuel Bosboom

NED

2416

FM

Ali Bitalzadeh

NED

2370

Average rating: 2512 – Category:
11

In Group C the average is 26 points higher than in 2008, and the tournament
is a category 11 instead of 10. We are interested to see how the Junior World
Champions Abhijeet Gupta and Harika Dronavalli, both from India, fare. We will
also get to know 14-year-old FM Anish Giri, who is of Nepalese-Russian extraction
and on his way to completing his IM title.

Rate of play
This has changed for the 2009 event. For the Grandmaster groups A, B and C it
is 40 moves in two hours, then 20 moves in one hour, followed by 15 minutes
for the rest of the game, with a 30 second increment per move.

Location: The tournament takes place in the De Moriaan Community
Centre (Dorpsduinen 4, 1949 EG Wijk aan Zee). There is running commentary on
the games of the Grandmaster Groups in a special Chess Pavilion, on the Village
Green in Wijk aan Zee (one minute walk from De Moriaan).

See also

11/14/2008 – The first round of the Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany, began with white-wash victories by Azerbaijan and Armenia. Host Germany defeated Scotland 3.5:0.5, and the second team actually beat Bulgaria 2.5:1.5. In the women's section Russia crushed Azerbaijan 4-0, while Germany was held by Iran. We bring you the results of the top boards and photographic impressions of the participants.Discuss

1/15/2009 – How are handedness and chess skills related? Is there a critical period for learning chess? How long does it take to reach 2200 Elo points? Prof. Gobet and Dr. Campitelli have found that there are fewer right-handers in the chess population, that one should start devoting time to chess no later than the age of 12, and that it takes on average about 11,000 hours of practice to reach 2200. Interesting read.Discuss

Discuss

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